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532 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SAINT LOUIS MEETING ELECTION OF FELLOWS The Secretary announced that the candidates for fellowship had received a nearly unanimous vote of the ballots sent, and that Fellows were elected as follows: A r t h d r B ib b in s , Ph. B ., Baltimore, Md. Instructor in GeoloGy, Woman’s ColleGe. G il b e r t D e n n is o n H a r r is , Ph. B ., Ithaca, N. Y. Assistant Professor of Paleon­ toloGy and StratiGraphic GeoloGy, Cornell University; GeoloGist in charGe of the GeoloGical Survey of Louisiana. R ic h a r d R. Hice, B. S., Beaver, Pa. Manufacturer of brick and terra-cotta. E r n e s t H o w e , Ph. IX, WashinGton, D. C. Assistant GeoloGist, U. S. GeoloGical Survey. W illis Thomas Lee, Ph. B., M. S., Phoenix, Ariz. Assistant GeoloGist, U. S. GeoloGical Survey. W illiam D iller M atthew , Ph. D ., New York City. Associate Curator in Verte­ brate PaleontoloGy, American Museum of Natural History. T h o m a s L e o n a r d W a l k k r , Ph. D., Toronto, Canada. Professor of MineraloGy and PetroGraphy, University of Toronto. F r e d B o i' g h t o n W e e k s , WashinGton, D. C. Assistant GeoloGist, V. S. GeoloGical Survey. S a m u e l W e id m a n , Ph. D., Madison, Wis. GeoloGist, Wisconsin GeoloGical and Natural History Survey. E d w a r d 0 . U l r ic h , D. Sc., WashinGton, D. C. Assistant GeoloGist, U . S. Geo­ loGical Survey. F r e d e r ic E u g h n e W r ig h t , Ph. D ., HouGhton, Mich. Assistant State GeoloGist and Instructor in PetroGraphy, MichiGan ColleGe of Mines. No new business was presented. The President called for the necrol­ oGy, and the followinG memoirs of deceased Fellows were presented. In the absence of the author the first memoir was read by I. C. W hite: MEMOIR OF J. PETER LESLEY BY JOHN J. STEVENSON J. Peter Lesley, born in Philadelphia September 17, 1819, died in Milton, Massachusetts, June 1,1903. His youth was spent in Philadelphia, and in 1838 he was Graduated at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Henry D. RoGers at once appointed him an aid on the Pennsylvania GeoloGical Survey and in the followinG sprinG assiGned hitn to assist Mr Henderson in the anthracite area; but within a few weeks Mr Henderson was transferred to another district, and Lesley was left alone to collect systematic information from the collieries and to instruct himself in field work. In 1840 he made a topoGraphic and GeoloGic sketch map of the complicated Siluro-Devonian area between HarrisburG and the New York line, and afterward, as assistant to James T. HodGe, studied the Carboniferous of Somerset and BULL. GEOL. SOC AM. VOL. 15, 1903, PL. 52 e MEMOIR OF J. PETER LESLEY 533 adjacent counties, confininG his attention to the coal beds, while Mr HodGe studied the iron ores. DarinG this season he identified with the PittsburG the Great coal bed at Salisbury, in Somerset county. In 1841, the last year of the survey, he made a reconnaissance of the northern and northwestern part of the state, studyinG the fourth and fifth bitu- minuous coal basins as far south as KittanninG, on the AlleGheny river, and rounded out the year’s work by a new study of the anthracite reGion, completinG the map left unfinished by Whelpley when he resiGned, in 1839. DurinG 1840 and 1841 Lesley worked out the detailed and Gen­ eralized sections of the lower productive and lower barren measures now known as the AlleGheny and ConemauGh formations—all this be­ fore reachinG his twenty-second birthday. His studies were made when much of the country was still a forest-covered wilderness, when roads were few, when aneroid barometers and pocket levels were unknown, and ordinary intervals were measured by estimate. His work in Somer­ set and the adjacent area was mere reconnaissance, yet his work, closely reviewed by GeoloGists of the second survey, needed little more of cor­ rection than did that of certainly one member of the second survey made in parts of that reGion thirty-five years later and under more favor­ able conditions. The skill with which Lesley and his youthful colleaGues unraveled complicated structure was little short of divination. The survey ended somewhat abruptly with the season of 1841—the GeoloGists were scattered—but Professor RoGers beGan to prepare his final report, hopinG that the state miGht be induced to publish it. Lesley had entered Princeton TheoloGical Seminary to “ indulGe in a course of theoloGy,” but his skill as topoGrapher and drauGhtsman, his knowledGe of structure in all parts of the state, above all, his inteGrity and loyalty; made him indispensable to RoGers, so that all of the time, not impera­ tively required for study, was employed in preparinG maps and diaGrams for the final report. At that time the only map of the state was so inaccurate as to be undeservinG of its name. There were numerous county maps, some of which had been colored and in some measure corrected by members of the corps; Lesley had made many corrections wherever he went, and there were a few detached areas which had been surveyed carefully. Such material as existed was Given to Lesley that he miGht construct the map. He has described the process, how the county lines were forced into adjustment from both ends of the state to the Susquehanna river, where the total error accumulated; this Gross error was distributed backward east and west over the whole state “ so that the fundamental skeleton of the map was ‘ tempered ’ like a piano forte, beinG erroneous throuGhout, but with the local errors reduced to a minimum.” On this county line scheme he plotted the topoGraphy, LXIX—B u m .. G eol. S oc. A m ., V oi.. 15, 190 534 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SAINT LOUIS MEETING “ good, bad, and indifferent,” and laid down the foundation colors. This done, he constructed thirteen cross-sections and drew to a scale several hundreds of local sections, diaGrams, and sketches, the whole work occupyinG eiGhteen months of 1842 and 1843. HavinG completed his theoloGical course, Lesley was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1844 and at once went to Europe, where he made a pedestrian tour throuGh France and Germany, which he closed with a brief course of study at the University of Halle. Return­ inG to America, he undertook col portaGe w'ork in northern Pennsylvania for the American Tract Society, which he pursued with characteristic enerGy and success for two years. In December, 1847, Professor RoGers asked him to come to Boston, where for five months he was busy in pre­ parinG duplicate copies of the GeoloGical map and sections, which were to be placed in the state capitol at HarrisburG. While in Boston he received and accepted a call to the pastorate of the ConGreGational church at Milton, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1851. In this interval his views respectinG some theoloGical matters developed alonG lines not wholly acceptable to his ministerial associates, so that at the end of four years he resiGned his charGe, abandoned the ministry, and returned to Philadelphia, where he beGan to practice as consultinG GeoloGist. At once his services were souGht aGain by Professor RoGers, who had obtained an appropriation for preparation of the final report, and for more than a year he was enGaGed upon the revision work. Thenceforward for forty years his labor was incessant. He was recoG­ nized at once as the most competent of GeoloGical experts, and his time was fully retained. Yet from 1855 to 1859 he was secretary of the Amer­ ican Iron Association, for which he published in 1859 a huGe volume, the “American Iron Manufacturers’ Guide,” a remarkable compendium of theory, practice, and statistics, which even now is of much value. From 1858 to 1885 he was secretary and librarian of the American Phil­ osophical Society, rarely absent from its meetinGs and seldom failinG to present a paper or to take part in the discussions. He made elaborate surveys of the Cape Breton coal field, of the Pennsylvania coke reGion, of the Broad Top area, of the Cumberland Valley iron ores, and of many other areas outside of his own state, and besides found abundance of time in which to learn several lanGuaGes and to prosecute special studies in several departments of literature and philosophy. In 1872 he was made professor of GeoloGy and dean of the faculty of science in the University of Pennsylvania, but in 1878, owinG to the pressure of other duties, he resiGned the deanship. The Second GeoloGical Survey of Pennsylvania was authorized in 1874, and he was placed in charGe of the work, which he conducted until compelled by failinG health to relinquish it, in 1895. MEMOIR OK J. PETER LESLEY 535 He was an oriGinal member of the National Academy of Sciences and was president of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 1884. Professor Lesley’s first important publication was the little volume entitled “ Coal and its TopoGraphy,” which appeared in 1856. Professor RoGers, after completinG the field work necessary for preparation of his final report, had Gone to EdinburGh to supervise the publication. By some means, early in 1856, Lesley learned that in this report the Geolo­ Gists who had done the field work, who had solved the problems of GeoloGy and topoGraphy, and had made some of the most important Generaliza­ tions were to be iGnored.

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